Fall Out Boy on Scoring No. 1 Albums and ‘Ultimate Dad Points’ With Their Kids (Exclusive)

The band’s latest full-length, Mania, has officially debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, just weeks after Pete Wentz announced that he and girlfriend Meagan Camper are expecting a baby girl! Only ET was with the band as they celebrated their new album at their iHeartRadio album release party at the iHeartRadio Theater in Los Angeles last week.

“I think it says more about our fans than anything, who have been with us for 10-15 years and still go out and buy the record in the first week,” Wentz says. “You see it on our Twitter, kids opening it or downloading it and reacting to it, and that's really when it becomes whatever the record is. You think of it the way you think of it, but [how people] receive it, that's super exciting.”

“It's cool to have No. 1 records or whatever, but I don't think anyone is ever like, ‘The White Album by the Beatles was No. 1,’” he adds. “You talk about what you love about music.”

Mania comes a hard-fought three years after FOB’s last offering, 2015’s American Beauty/American Psycho, with the band opting to push their planned release back four months, from September to January.

“Before we pushed the album back … when that release date was starting to really come up and there was a deadline looming, I found myself staying up really late and trying to get stuff done, and that's just not really a smart way to make music,” Patrick Stump says. “It was very, like, ‘I want those reports on my desk by Friday!’ It wasn't really like art.”

Taking a beat to recalibrate, the project paid off, earning the band its fourth career (and third consecutive) No. 1. Later this year, the Chicago-bred group will check an even bigger item off their career bucket list when they perform at Wrigley Field.

“It’s a bigger thing than I can even kinda fathom for my family,” Stump admits. “I can’t even put into words, it’s such a crazy thing. It’s overwhelming. I never get nervous before shows – I’m trying not to get nervous about this one.”

“Who knows if we’ll ever get the chance to play there again,” Wentz adds. “I think we’re gonna do something really special and big, and that’s definitely the biggest place and most important show that we play in Chicago.”

Fall Out Boy will continue touring through much of 2018, but 15 years after releasing their debut album, they know better than to plan too far ahead.

“I think that right now it’s exciting because we’ve been creating new music and there’s a new audience,” Wentz explains, pondering whether the band would continue touring and creating well into their golden years. “It’s new kids that go with kids, or people, who have been coming to our shows for 15 years, so that’s awesome. … But just the idea that, I dunno, predicting what you’re gonna be like when you’re 60, right now, would be crazy to do.”